The present invention relates to a notifying system such as, for example, a traffic accident emergency notifying system affecting an operation of a moving object such as an automobile and more particularly to a technology which enables a center station to make more rapid arrangements for sending a rescue party on optimum emergency cars or the like by notifying the center station of an occurrence of a trouble quickly and a content thereof accurately by means of a transmission of image information (video information) even if any trouble occurs to the automobile, for example, in case of an accident disabling a driver of the automobile to make a response.
In addition, the present invention relates to an improvement of a mobile terminal, namely, a mobile phone and a radio communication system for the mobile phone whose communication function is partially limited in case of some trouble which has occurred to the mobile phone, a mobile phone owner, or an automobile on which the mobile phone is mounted, for example, in case of a shock or an impact applied by a collision, a heated condition or a temperature rise caused by a fire, or a decrease of a temperature inside the automobile caused by a decrease of an air temperature or the like.
Referring to FIG. 7, there is shown a typical block configuration of an emergency information notifying system using a conventional technology such as, for example, an automobile. Referring to FIG. 8, there is shown a diagram of assistance in explaining an appearance of the moving object in which the emergency information notifying system is installed, as shown in FIG. 7. In addition, a typical configuration of an emergency information notifying system utilizing the conventional technology is shown in FIG. 9.
In FIG. 7, there is shown a shock sensor 1f. This shock sensor 1f is mounted at a forefront of the automobile. Furthermore, there are shown an airbag device 2, a Global Positioning System receiver (GPS receiver) 3, and an antenna 3a of the Global Positioning System (GPS).
In this condition, if the shock sensor 1f detects a shock, the airbag device 2 works as a result of the detection to reduce a shock given to passengers inside the automobile and to protect them with an output of airbag working information 2a. On the other hand, the GPS receiver 3 outputs position or location and time information 3b of the automobile. These airbag working information 2a and the position and time information 3b are transmitted to an emergency notification control unit 4 to generate a notification signal 4a for notifying an occurrence of an accident involving the detected shock, a time of the automobile at the occurrence of the accident and a position of that. The notification signal 4a is supplied to a mobile phone 5 and then the mobile phone 5 automatically transmits the signal, thereby notifying the accident to the center station shown in FIG. 9 such as, for example, an emergency information center 30′ by a radio communication or via a communication network 32.
The emergency information center 30′ checks the occurrence of the accident on the automobile 10 and its position by means of the received notification signal 4a and have a passenger, particularly, a driver explain an accident situation via the mobile phone 5. Then, the center selects emergency cars to be dispatched to an accident site out of patrol cars, ambulance cars, fire engines, tow cars and the like and arranges them on the basis of the checked content or the content of the explanation.
If there is no response from the driver via the mobile phone 5 to the emergency information center 30′ by which the center cannot receive the explanation of the accident situation in this condition, it is determined that there has occurred “a serious accident putting a driver in an unconscious state (consciousness disorder) or the like” and a patrol car is dispatched first on the basis of the determination. Then, according to the situation of the accident site checked by the patrol car, emergency cars such as ambulance cars, fire engines, tow cars or the like are dispatched.
Furthermore, without an output of the airbag working information 2a, an emergency notification can be made by a driver's manipulation of an emergency notification switch 6, in the same manner as with the output of the airbag working information 2a. 
An introduction of this system enables an emergency notification without a need for looking for a public telephone or an emergency telephone occurrence of an emergency such as an accident and therefore the emergency information center 30′ can locate the position of the accident site quickly even if a passenger is unhinged or the passenger is in an unknown place, thereby enhancing first aid and critical care effects.
In JP-A-9-297838, there is disclosed a technology of, for example, taking photographs of a car in an accident damaged as a result of the accident involving a shock as described above, comparing the image with a previously registered image of the car having no damage, and of calculating an assessed amount of a damage insurance according to the damage on the basis of a difference obtained by the comparison. In this technology, however, the assessed amount of the damage insurance is just calculated based on only a situation of a single car in the accident to be assessed and, for example, in an accident involving a plurality of automobiles, the assessed amount cannot be determined unless a proportion of mutual liabilities is determined and only a single car image indicating the extent of damage is insufficient to calculate the proportion of the liabilities.
In “NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal” (pp. 18-22, issued on Oct. 1, 2000) and “ITS Industry and Economy 2001” (pp. 54-60, issued on May 1, 2001), there is described an example of an emergency notification service at an occurrence of a car accident with a mobile phone. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,080, there is described a notification from an automobile to a Mayday center. In JP-A-11-165661, there is disclosed transmitting information on a vehicle driving condition to a base station. In JP-A-2000-205890, there is disclosed notifying a call center of accident occurrence information. In JP-A-2001-243579, there is disclosed notifying a monitoring center of passenger information when an accident occurs. In the notifying systems described in the above literature and publication, there is disclosed a transmission of identification information (character information) related to a driver or a vehicle in an accident to a given station, but there is no disclosure of recording images before and after the accident taken from the car in the accident and transmitting the images to the emergency notification center.
In a serious traffic accident affecting a human life, it is widely known that a time duration between an occurrence of an accident and an ambulance car arrival decides the first aid and critical care effects. Even in the above notifying systems having greatly improved notifying effects in comparison with the conventional notification depending on a public telephone or an emergency telephone, it is sometimes impossible to rapidly and optimally cope with an accident in case of a serious accident disabling the driver of the accident car to make a response.
In addition, in the above conventional technology described in JP-A-9-297838, an assessed amount of a damage insurance is just calculated based on only a situation of a single car in an accident to be assessed and, for example, in an accident involving a plurality of automobiles, an assessed amount can be determined only after a proportion of mutual liabilities is determined and only a single car image indicating the extent of damage is insufficient to calculate the proportion of the liabilities.